Well, I hope that's the worst half we have for a long time. If it's not the worst half we have tonight, this will be truly embarrassing.

Very stupid push from BBD. Should be booked for it but complains it was given instead. Looks frustrated. Pickering doesn't look good enough to me. Not been convinced since he came back from injury last season. Edit- BBD then got pissy with a Reading fan. Definitely frustrated. Needs to focus himself.

I blame Oldgregg for winding him up.

Second time we have cleared off the line. Making an under strength Reading look like a top Championship side. I expected a banana skin but this is really wank.

Eh? We are constantly losing the ball and looking under pressure yet have barely entered their third. It's shite mate.

Lucky to only be one down here. Pathetic display so far.

Travis (not Buckley as the commentators just claimed) had to come off briefly there...would be a real problem if he got injured.

We are playing very poorly against a bang average side who have conceded in the first ten minutes in every game until now. Not sure who that was who gestured for a free kick instead of chasing the ball when he could have applied pressure and maybe won it back.

Shit. Said it wasn't going to be as easy as it looked on paper.

Not if we buy someone else with the money we don't. And yes I think he should stay put.

We might choose to sell him for an arranged fee now rather than wait til next summer and risk a shit fee at tribunal.

It's pretty premature to say this of Broughton at this stage. So far he has made two permanent signings, both players already tracked for a while by the club, and bid on previously if I recall. Both players were from relegated sides, which made it easier to do than in the past. And a lad on loan from Liverpool, which has been part of our transfer policy for 2 years too. Meanwhile, three players worth decent money have walked off on free transfers, and we still stand a chance of losing our best prospect in years for a pittance. Brereton has not signed his new deal and as a result we are likely to lose him for less than we'd like. There are 2 weeks of the window left. To be clear, I'm not blaming him for any of that. I'm just saying nothing has really shown he is the real deal, as things stand. Maybe he is, but not gonna be able to call that until the end of the January transfer at the least I would think.

This stage of the window is about when I expected things to start hotting up with Diaz. Whether it's just speculation or actual bids. If as many teams are keenly looking as is now being said, we should be able to get the 20 million we reputedly want for him. Crucial we line up a good replacement, and ideally with some money left over to strengthen elsewhere as we probably won't replace him like-for-like in impact.

He is though. He played once in a cup for Spurs. Here, he has been injured nearly the entirety of his time here and has played 3 times. He isn't a regular starter as things stand, but he doesn't seem fully fit yet and will definitely get his chances and it will be up to him to take them. The same couldn't be said for if he was at Spurs. Squad player is a big upgrade on youth team player.

It's not just about what we've invested into him though. We invest into the academy as a whole in the hope of producing gems like him, and Raya, and there is a whole lot of wasted investment that falls by the wayside. Granted, we currently have a lot coming through and the academy is paying for itself indirectly regardless of Phillips, but we only have about 4.5-5 million of direct money from the last few years (Raya 3m, Wright 1m, Mahoney 500k-1m...maybe a touch extra from Raya's clauses). Prior to recent years we had a serious dry patch for a long time. Point being, we need to be able to capitalise on the good uns, and it's really not fair that due to a rigged system we are losing seriously valuable talent when it has barely played for us (or in Wright's case, before). Of course we have also lost a bit (Lenihan, Nyambe) for nowt due to our own sheer incompetence and that part's on us. But it is going to seriously hurt if we get about a million or two for Phillips then see him go on to become an England legend.

Fair enough, I'll stick to it being a draw though, just with less worry than before of a defeat. Our own defence could end up being makeshift very quickly, and we can't get away with that every game. 4 wins from 4 (5 from 5 really) would be sensational, just feel it won't happen. Fingers crossed though!

On paper, this is certainly the easiest of our opening 5 league games. We have a 100% record. They're managed by Paul Ince, a disaster at Rovers, and some ex Rovers players thrown in (I make it 4 in their squad), only three days after a gruelling, hot match against a good side, and we're away...I've seen this script before. Banana skin written all over it. First dropped points of the season. I'm going to predict a draw. 10 points from 12 will still represent an excellent return. Joao to score if he plays.

There has been speculation since last January. He's handling it fine. I don't think a derisory bid from Nice is going to affect him.

We will probably struggle for 'mega' bucks if we wait two years. At that point he will only have a year left on his deal, as 17 year olds can only sign 3 year deals. Unless we can persuade him to sign another next year of course.

That didn't present itself as an exclusive. The LT also reported that a deal with Phillips was agreed for when he turned 17. What nobody has been able to categorically clear up since is whether Phillips was able to officially sign it so it legally came into force once he turned 17. What I've seen on here and elsewhere paints the picture to me that he and his team verbally agreed it, but it couldn't be signed into force, then when the time came they decided it wasn't enough and renegotiated.

The article says it's 25k extra compo per appearance he makes, not the 40k (I think) that was mentioned on here earlier.

I thought that made it sound slightly concerning too at first, but I'm sure it's just a quirk of how the (fairly poor) reporter has written it. There will have been talks before, this will be about trying to finally get it over the line, and obviously we are dependent not just on when our guys are free for the talks but when Phillips' representatives are free.

Interesting. Lancs Live rarely go against the general grain of reporting. They must have been told something. Of course, there is a lot of language like 'could' sign it, so I'm not going to ejaculate just yet. Still firmly at the precum stage at best. There are rumblings in my balls though for sure.

It was a British transfer record fee and very fair at the time. The money in the game in general accelerated afterwards, and he fulfilled his potential, that's why he went on to be worth 5 times that. They weren't robbed in the very slightest sense whatsoever.

You mean Rovers, right? I agree, my point was it's much worse than Southampton's situation in the 90s that you compared it to.